By Betty Richardson
Welcome back to the December issue of Shanghai F&B Gossip!
This month in unexpected upheavals, the Yongfu Lu taco truck caught fire last Saturday night. According to an eyewitness, local partygoer Bridget O'Donnell, the truck's grill was the first thing that caught alight, quickly spreading and filling its cab with smoke. In what was either a very brave or stupid move, the truck's proprietor reportedly dashed into the burning vehicle to pull out two propane gas tanks after a fire extinguisher did little to calm the inferno. We bet the Xuhui Mayor is having a field day over this one...
Earlier in the week, Bocado, a popular Spanish restaurant and bar, sprung a surprise closure on us. According to owner Charles Cabell, the team had originally sought to find a new location for the place but decided against it in favor of focusing on new and existing projects, including Jing'an's Husk restaurant.
In further troubling news, Wishbone, one of our favorite rotisserie chicken places, will be closed while the team look for a new location. No word as of yet on where that'll be... might we suggest Found 158?
Speaking of Found 158, local cuisinier Nat Alexander is opening a pizza restaurant in Shanghai's new favorite/only subterranean open air mall. Dubbed Homeslice, the restaurant will offer 20-inch pies by the slice, alongside a simple drinks menu. In true Alexander fashion, he's taking the whole thing up a notch and making his pizzas with 48-hour aged sourdough crusts and traditional toppings. Scott Lau, the designer responsible for Alexander's enormously popular former restaurant, Fulton Place, is doing interiors.
Xintiandi also got served a new resident this month: Cobra Lily. The latest brainchild from the Liquid Laundry gang, the bar-cum-lounge restaurant serves craft beer and an Asian menu designed by Kelley Lee herself and LL head chef Simon Sunwoo.
This new opening comes simultaneously with a second branch of Liquid Laundry, known colloquially as Little Laundry, inside the Shanghai Centre on Nanjing Xi Lu.
Over at the glitzy Pullman Hotel, a glamorous new bar and restaurant has been installed on the 50th floor. FED, short for ‘Flowers, Eats, Drinks,’ offers a decidedly floral ambience alongside a Western menu and craft cocktails. Stay tuned for our review next month.
Also coming soon to Shanghai is Dodu, gourmet rotisserie chicken bistro by French expat Hugo de Montdragon, who has apparently spent the last year researching France's best rotisseries, butcheries and delis in search of their secrets. Management tells us they won’t be serving any old broilers, either; they’ll be roasting fancy French ‘Label Rouge’ hens, bred on a free-range farm in Taiwan.
We got a rare pleasant surprise earlier in the month, when it was revealed that culinary power couple Sean Jorgensen and Anna Bautista were to take the reigns of newly opened all-day dining lounge Highline. This venture will mark Bautista and Jorgensen’s first permanent kitchen gig since their respective posts at Coquille and Liquid Laundry. Can’t wait to see what they roll out.
Further surprises were in store with the unveiling of Shanghai’s first hot sauce tasting bar. Cheekily named The Hot Box, the shop sells a fiery range of imported, local and housemade hot sauces. Be warned, some of them are akin to drinking pepper spray – only the brave need apply...
Last but not least, our pals over at DRiNK Magazine, China's leading bar industry magazine, held their inaugural awards ceremony in the sumptuous Wanda Reign on the Bund hotel. Voted for exclusively by industry leaders, winners like Speak Low, The Nest, Otto e Mezzo Bombana, Hakkasan, The Long Bar and Union Trading Company (surprise, surprise!) all scooped up prizes.
There wasn't a dry glass in the house.
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